Judy & Brian Tour Oz: Airlie Beach Week August 1-6 2016

Airlie Beach Week August 1-6 2016

Being in the Whitsundays (well, landlocked on the coast of) has its drawbacks: to see the Whitsundays means a day's cruising at vast expense - about $200 per head for something semi-decent. The trouble is that having seen them once or thrice before, you get to be real fussy about the details and a bit meaner with the cash.

This year we resisted any temptation to go to Whitehaven Beach. It's beautiful but is it worth $400 to go and sit on the sand one more time? We decided that this year at least, the answer is no. What to do then? We elected to do a day trip to Hamilton Island, taking the 'commuter' ferry there and back, doing our own 'thing' and choosing our own place for lunch. When we turned up at the ferry terminal, the lady suggested that for $2 more we could have a package that included the boat ride, and lunch. No one is going to turn that down, are they?

The boat ride goes via Daydream Island, where we have spent many a happy and pleasant day, birds in the restaurant notwithstanding. Having sent the latest lot of happy campers ashore we proceeded to Hamilton which is only another 30 minutes or so away.

Daydream Island Qld

The first thing you see coming up to the marina at Hamilton is the Yacht Club, which is an odd sort of shape and I'm not sure of it's supposed to be a whale or a manta ray.

Yacht club. Hamilton Island Qld

The second thing you notice stepping ashore is that the place is alive with golf buggies which swarm around you wherever you go, and apart from the free buses that service the island all-over, they are the only form of transport for the tourist.

Buggy parking only. Marina. Hamilton Island Qld

Hamilton Island is shaped a bit like a pinched peanut. The marina is on one side of the middle in the middle, the resort proper, on the other and there's is a hill of sorts in between them. Being us, we hadn't bothered with the 72 hour pre-booking required for a rent-a-buggy, preferring to take our chances. The buggy place is over the other side, at the resort, so we hung around and waited for the Green bus. We got off at the resort proper and wandered about a bit and finally made our way to the buggies. A bit of a wait found us at the head of the queue and picking up the 4th last buggy available for casual rent for the day. The people behind us grabbed the other 3 between them, so it was a close call!

I didn't have my wallet/licence with me so Judy did the business and became the designated driver for the day, and judging by the look on her face, she thoroughly enjoyed herself. There just isn't that much roadway on the island, just enough to go zooming around in a buggy a few times. The first place we stopped was at the One Tree Hill lookout, which had good views, but we were more interested in the view from the nearby coffee shop, complete with coffee and cake. The island is quite hilly and while going down was a breeze, going up felt like you were on the steep part of a roller-coaster when the chain drive takes you up to the top and the slippery slope beyond.

JB getting it all crossed-up and sideways. Hamilton Island Qld

One tree Hill cafe and bar. Hamilton Island Qld

Catseye Beach. Hamilton Island Qld

We had lunch at our designated place: The Marina Tavern. The locals thought it was a good place, they were lined up 6 deep waiting for a table to be vacated or, just came right in and helped themselves from the table leftovers.

Marina Tavern. Hamilton Island Qld

The height of canine haute couture : pink and blue poodles!

Marina. Hamilton Island Qld

We drove everywhere we could: marina, lookouts, resorts, beach, aerodrome, and some rundown place where they may have had go-karts and dune buggies. Oh, and an all-comers chapel, as plain as can be inside, but a great setting for the all-important wedding snaps.

Chapel. Hamilton Island Qld

Having run out of buggy-time, we returned it and strolled past the shop, no shops, there were at least 3. Finally we took to the world famous pool for a dip, except its seriously cool, in a temperature sort of way. Having been treated to 'our' pool heated to 28oC for a week, an unheated pool came as a shock. I went in anyway, it had to be done. Note the swim-up bar.

Pool, Hamilton Island Resort

Finally we took the bus back to the marina and drank a coffee while we waited for the ferry.

Not much happening next day or two, but we did go on a Sunset Cruise. We choose the Providence V, a Gloucester style schooner. You are greeted with the usual yachtie bare-feet rule and a glass of champagne as you board. The skipper aroused our attention by ramming the jetty on the way out and then told us how the boat was a scale replica of the Bluenose, a schooner of the 19th century and of which there is a model in the Canberra Yacht Club, which I thought was interesting. Once out on the water, they brought out a large tray of dips and cheese and crackers and stuff, which was nice, and then proceeded to inform us that another plastic of lukewarm champagne was another $6. I didn't notice anyone lining up to take advantage of the offer. And then the grand moment, the deckie raised 'a' sail. Yes, one only, a small jib and then it was secured so the boom couldn't swing about and it wasn't pulled tight or anything. Just a bit of no-cost show for us, the paying guests. They stopped the engine, and while it was lovely and peaceful to watch the lights of Airlie Beach come on, it was all rather pointless. We both recalled that we said almost the same thing last year when we went out on a catamaran. The skipper got our attention again, this time making sure she nailed the jetty good-and-proper, after which her and the deckhand appeared not to have any idea what to do to secure the boat to the wharf. I was hoping it would sort of just drift out of their reach while they were both on the jetty fiddling about. I checked up about the Bluenose and Providence V later, their boat is actually modelled on the Blackfish, as it mentions on their own website... Says it all really about a pretty ordinary attraction.

Providence V, Airlie Beach Qld

Snacks 'n sails. Providence V, Airlie Beach Qld

Come and get it! Providence V, Airlie Beach Qld

Another afternoon we had coffee at the marina at a place called Barcelona, which was OK, and then took ourselves for a stroll down and around one of the marina arms where they had conveniently left the door open. There're some seriously big and nice boats sitting around the marinas of Australia.

Able Point Marina. Airlie Beach Qld

But we liked this old Huon Pine fishing trawler. We got chatting with the man on board who had just brought it up from the Gold Coast for his son. The son is a professional super yacht crew and has 20 odd other crew working for him.

Able Point Marina. Airlie Beach Qld

One night we shouted ourselves to a slap-up seafood platter dinner at La Tabella in Airlie Beach, which was excellent but needed the chocolate gateaux and macchiato and affogatto to top it off. We were wandering up the main street toward our car when music coming out of KCs Bar & Grill attracted our attention. We wandered in, grabbed a few drinks and settled in to listen to a blues / jazz type duo on guitar and saxophone. We were getting into it when another scruffy looking bloke stepped onto the stage, squeezing in between them. He picked up the main-man's second-string acoustic guitar and started fiddling about with it. They didn't seem to mind at all, barely missing a beat while the interloper tweaked and tuned and complained about rubbish guitars and plastic strings. And then he turned toward the crowd, hit the strings, and as they say, 'Blew that room away.'

Judy picked him at once: Phil Emmanuel, brother of the Australian guitar playing legend Tommy Emanuel; just looked like an out-of-work muso to me. They say that while Tommy has all the fame and glory, it's his brother Phil, who is the better guitarist, and having watched him wring the neck of that sad old guitar, I'm prepared to believe them. The story was something like how they normally play together as a trio and it was Phil's night off, but as he had come into the bar to get a feed, he couldn't help but jump up and have a play with his mates. Wow, we are really glad that he did, a special unexpected treat.

Pop Standen (left), Phil Emmanuel and Dave Hoffmann. KCs Bar and grille. Airlie Beach Qld

Phil Emmanuel. Airlie Beach Qld

Today, Saturday, the Reef Festival gets underway and so we strolled into town to watch the street parade, which was just a bit of fun really and it's great to see this small community getting into these events to keep their town alive. We waited patiently while a band singing some song about Pomegranates or something finished, and sat through a rain squall and then the local member saying all the right things about volunteers and sponsors and supporters. There appeared to be some delay to the start of the parade, which eventually became obvious when a nice looking '57 Chevy was ignominiously towed away.